Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

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AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

nmfree posted:

edit 2: ok, reading further, this one is the XM model as well. Still a good deal with the YB-550 thrown in, though.

Honestly, this is the best drat value you can get. I know you don't want/need the XM feature, but it doesn't cost extra, you don't have to use it, and the YB-550 is a drat good pocket-sized handheld. This is the way to go, just to get the freebie Yacht Boy.

Edit: Here's a Radio Intelligencer review of the Tecsun PL-230, which is sold in the US as the YB-550PE. Check it out, as it may sway your opinion. It doesn't have SSB, but it has every other important feature (including 1 kHz fine tuning!) and is a VERY sensitive and selective receiver.

Double edit, forgot to add link. http://www.radiointel.com/review-tecsunpl230.htm

AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jun 21, 2007

# ? Jun 21, 2007 06:29

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# ? May 10, 2024 00:51

Dog Case: Oct 7, 2003; Heeelp meee... prevent wildfires

Halah posted:

I'll have you know that at 3 am last night I was out on my balcony rewiring my antenna around the siding and adding some length to it (pro tip - grab some phone cord. It's cheap and long.) I'm sure my neighbors thought I was nuts, but whatever.

I've had an old discontinued Radioshack shortwave antenna kit laying around that I finally got around to putting up. It's 57 feet long (best for ~4000-12000kHz), and runs from one corner of my (about 10 feet deep) backyard to the TV antenna pole on the back of the house and back down to the other corner of the yard.

I'm sure I've only reinforced the neighbors idea that we're crazy by standing tippy-toe on the top step of a rickety, chest-high, wooden ladder while trying to push the mid-point of the antenna higher up the antenna pole with a broken rake.

EDIT: Anybody else able to get the New York VOLMET on 6604kHz USB?

EDIT EDIT: Possible number station on 8992kHz SSB right now, 8:08UTC. First a male, and now female voice reading strings of numbers and phonetic alphabet letters. Then at the end "This completes this (something). Stand by for (something something)." Lots of static so it's hard to make out.

Dog Case fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Jun 21, 2007

# ? Jun 21, 2007 08:05

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Dog Case posted:

EDIT EDIT: Possible number station on 8992kHz SSB right now, 8:08UTC. First a male, and now female voice reading strings of numbers and phonetic alphabet letters. Then at the end "This completes this (something). Stand by for (something something)." Lots of static so it's hard to make out.

That could have also been some sort of aeronautical/weather related transmission. I didn't find anything on 8992 on the master frequency list of known number traffic frequencies and it sounds like an unusual and unfamiliar format. On the other hand, you could have caught an elusive one-off transmission. You never know!

# ? Jun 21, 2007 17:55

StarkRavingMad: Sep 27, 2001; Yams Fan

AstroZamboni posted:

That could have also been some sort of aeronautical/weather related transmission. I didn't find anything on 8992 on the master frequency list of known number traffic frequencies and it sounds like an unusual and unfamiliar format. On the other hand, you could have caught an elusive one-off transmission. You never know!

Can you direct link to where the best lists are for number stations? I know you said Simon Mason's page and the Spynumbers page, but there's a lot of different stuff there, including just lists of frequencies, and several different pages for Mossad signals, and it's all a little bewildering. Is there just one consolidated resource somewhere that I could check? Maybe I'm asking for too much, but it would be great if there was something like the Passport to World-Band Radio listings, but for numbers stations. So I could go "okay, it's 4:30 world time, I should check the following 10 frequencies."

# ? Jun 21, 2007 19:55

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

StarkRavingMad posted:

Can you direct link to where the best lists are for number stations? I know you said Simon Mason's page and the Spynumbers page, but there's a lot of different stuff there, including just lists of frequencies, and several different pages for Mossad signals, and it's all a little bewildering. Is there just one consolidated resource somewhere that I could check? Maybe I'm asking for too much, but it would be great if there was something like the Passport to World-Band Radio listings, but for numbers stations. So I could go "okay, it's 4:30 world time, I should check the following 10 frequencies."

Uh.. all that is on Simon Mason's page. There are schedules for different stations at the bottom of the page. Its bewildering because there's a lot of stuff, but its also exactly what you're asking for. There's a lot of weird poo poo on shortwave, and there aren't that many resource pages JUST for number stations.

# ? Jun 21, 2007 21:02

DarkSol: May 18, 2006; Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.

AstroZamboni posted:

Weird, I just checked and it was $499. Sharper image stores MIGHT carry them also.

Edit: Best Buy also carries them, but they only carry the XM version. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7749859&st=Shortwave&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1140394359129

You might also want to try Universal Radio. They have the E1XM, but they also have the Grundig G1, which is a rebranded E1 with a black exterior casing. It should be available withing a very short time, so you might want to call them and check.

Well, come next Friday, I think I will be plopping down $500 for the E1XM (even though I wont be using the XM radio features). drat you making me want to spend money on something so awesomely bad rear end. :argh:

And lots of it too. (Money, that is.) :sigh:

# ? Jun 21, 2007 21:24

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

DarkSol posted:

Well, come next Friday, I think I will be plopping down $500 for the E1XM (even though I wont be using the XM radio features). drat you making me want to spend money on something so awesomely bad rear end. And lots of it too. (Money, that is.)

MWUHAHAHHAHAHA!

This is what GBS is all about : Being inspired by an internet thread to take up new hobbies and wind up in the poorhouse.

# ? Jun 21, 2007 21:29

DarkSol: May 18, 2006; Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.

AstroZamboni posted:

MWUHAHAHHAHAHA!

This is what GBS is all about : Being inspired by an internet thread to take up new hobbies and wind up in the poorhouse.

As long as I'll have enough to pay for my internet and phone bills, food, and class on July 1st, it's all good.

# ? Jun 21, 2007 21:31

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

AstroZamboni posted:

MWUHAHAHHAHAHA!

This is what GBS is all about : Being inspired by an internet thread to take up new hobbies and wind up in the poorhouse.

No, GBS is about using your newfound hobby to gently caress with people.

There's this meth head who lives on the first floor of my building. He's a general annoyance to everyone else who lives here, always acting sketchy and trying to sell you stolen property and whatnot. Also, obviously, he's super paranoid.

So I burned CD 1 of the Conet Project and left it in an envelope outside his door.

This will end well.

# ? Jun 21, 2007 21:34

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

SoundMonkey posted:

No, GBS is about using your newfound hobby to gently caress with people.

There's this meth head who lives on the first floor of my building. He's a general annoyance to everyone else who lives here, always acting sketchy and trying to sell you stolen property and whatnot. Also, obviously, he's super paranoid.

So I burned CD 1 of the Conet Project and left it in an envelope outside his door.

This will end well.

I love you.

# ? Jun 21, 2007 21:35

Milka: Feb 23, 2005; at least i'm not one of the '06s

Ol' Tortoiseblossom posted:

Can you direct link to where the best lists are for number stations? I know you said Simon Mason's page and the Spynumbers page, but there's a lot of different stuff there, including just lists of frequencies, and several different pages for Mossad signals, and it's all a little bewildering. Is there just one consolidated resource somewhere that I could check? Maybe I'm asking for too much, but it would be great if there was something like the Passport to World-Band Radio listings, but for numbers stations. So I could go "okay, it's 4:30 world time, I should check the following 10 frequencies."

God, I could swear there was a site like this maybe a year or two ago. It would just check the current time and give you a list of numbers stations currently broadcasting and the frequencies.

# ? Jun 22, 2007 02:30

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

Milka posted:

God, I could swear there was a site like this maybe a year or two ago. It would just check the current time and give you a list of numbers stations currently broadcasting and the frequencies.

If you find this, let me know, because I've been frustrated all night trying to hear some faint voice through interference, only to find out it's just another crazy jesusfreak.

# ? Jun 22, 2007 09:43

Milka: Feb 23, 2005; at least i'm not one of the '06s

SoundMonkey posted:

If you find this, let me know, because I've been frustrated all night trying to hear some faint voice through interference, only to find out it's just another crazy jesusfreak.

http://www.spynumbers.com/numbersDB/
It's "see what stations may be on the air right now". Some of the listings are from the late 90s but there's enough recent stuff so you should be able to catch something.

# ? Jun 22, 2007 11:29

thehustler: Apr 17, 2004; I am very curious about this little crescendo

SoundMonkey posted:

If you find this, let me know, because I've been frustrated all night trying to hear some faint voice through interference, only to find out it's just another crazy jesusfreak.

http://www.spynumbers.com/numbersDB/

Some of the data might be out of date.

Edit: Milka :argh:

# ? Jun 22, 2007 11:32

stash: Apr 18, 2007; It's not what you think...; Pillbug

Cool, I looked at that page and started listening. I am picking one up just barely on 4028kHz. 03:00 UTC, central Texas. Female voice, I can just barely hear it enough to make out that it's Spanish. Signal is pretty faint here, I probably wouldn't have heard the voice if I hadn't tuned to that frequency and listened for it. Seems to be a lot of reports of this channel over the last couple years, so maybe someone else here can pick it up.

I've also picked up Radio Havana Cuba, Radio China International, and of course Alex Jones and Jesus Christ - they're everywhere.

I am using an Eton/Grundig G5 (thanks OP, I totally didn't need that bill anyway) with a 30' wire tossed up on the roof, which works better than the onboard antenna (barely). Anyone else get anything cool lately?

edit: Dog Case, yeah I get VOLMET at 6604kHz USB, a little faint but I can understand most of it. Temperature, Dewpoint, Altimeter, Weather, Ceiling, Wind, Visibility... Any tips on how to pick up more aviation type stuff?

stash fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jun 23, 2007

# ? Jun 23, 2007 04:39

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

stash posted:

Anyone else get anything cool lately?

edit: Dog Case, yeah I get VOLMET at 6604kHz USB, a little faint but I can understand most of it. Temperature, Dewpoint, Altimeter, Weather, Ceiling, Wind, Visibility... Any tips on how to pick up more aviation type stuff?

I'm currently listening to a number station on 3292.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 05:18

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Halah posted:

I'm currently listening to a number station on 3292.

What kind of station is it? What language/format? The master list isn't showing anything.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 06:38

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

AstroZamboni posted:

What kind of station is it? What language/format? The master list isn't showing anything.

I got very poor reception. It was a female, sounded like it could have been Spanish or German. Several groups (sounded like "group #") of five numbers. It lasted nearly 45 minutes.

Edit: It started at 0400 UTC on the dot, didn't notice any intro music or tones.

Edit 2: There's one on 5800 right now using CW, but I suck at CW.

Halah fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Jun 23, 2007

# ? Jun 23, 2007 07:13

Tiny Bug Child: Sep 11, 2004; Avoid Symmetry, Allow Complexity, Introduce Terror

I got that one too. It was the Atencion lady.

I've been using Numbers & Oddities' 2007 log database. They have a huge Excel spreadsheet full of logs- I just sort it by day, then time and quickly check the frequencies listed at the top of the hour. They're more recent than some of the really old logs in the Spynumbers.com database, but 90% of the logs are V2 (the Atencion lady) or its Morse code sister station. I've hear that station plenty in the last few days, but I've had terrible luck trying to get anything else.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 07:18

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Halah posted:

I got very poor reception. It was a female, sounded like it could have been Spanish or German. Several groups (sounded like "group #") of five numbers. It lasted nearly 45 minutes.

Edit: It started at 0400 UTC on the dot, didn't notice any intro music or tones.

Edit 2: There's one on 5800 right now using CW, but I suck at CW.

Listening right now, and its in AM. Unusual to hear a CW number traffic in anything other than USB, but those are definitely code groups. You can tell just by listening to the cadence and timing of pauses.

Yeah, that was Atencion you heard. I found the frequency in the Cuban number pages in my E5's memory.

By the way, has anyobody been able to pick up MI6's Guam-based "Cherry Ripe" yet? I've lucked out on good days and caught it three times so far. Tricky to tune, can only get it around sunset, and transmits in USB. drat hard to catch, but well worth the effort.

AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Jun 23, 2007

# ? Jun 23, 2007 07:31

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

Speaking of sucking rear end at CW, and since this is the shortwave thread, W1AW broadcasts regular code practice on 1.8175, 3.5815, 7.0475, 14.0475, 18.0975, 21.0675, 28.0675 and 147.555 MHz. In days of yore I knew code, but I never use it these days so I've pretty much forgotten everything but SOS.

A full schedule can be found at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#w1awsked

And I'm on 8186 right now waiting to see if I can make it three numbers stations in one night. Supposedly there's one on that freq. at 0800.

Edit: AstroZamboni, that W1AW bit might be a good fit for your first post. Also, you might mention these times/abbreviations we're tossing around as a benefit to the new listeners that find this thread. As in; 0800 = UTC/Zulu = Greenwich Mean Time, CW = Continuous Wave = Morse Code. I'm sure I missed a couple (did you cover SSB/USB/LSB? I can't remember.)

Edit 2: Might as well include common "Q" signals, since there was a question earlier as to what a QSL was.

Why are they used? Because it's a hell of a lot easier to pound out "73" in Morse code than it is to do "goodbye" It's easier to "QSA" instead of "What is the strength of my signals?" Keep in mind you might be hearing a station thousands of miles away, even in another country. These codes remove language barriers and keep communication simple. If interference is high, "QSA" might get through, but you might hear "W**T I* **e s*re**h o* *y *ig**l**" If the phrase was typed out in Morse code.

QNA Answer in prearranged order.
QNC All net stations copy.
QND Net is directed.
QNE Entire net stand by.
QNF Net is free.
QNG Take over as net control station.
QNI Net stations report in.
QNM You are QRMing the net.
QNN Net control station is [call sign].
QNO Station is leaving the net.
QNP Unable to copy you.
QNS Following stations are in the net.
QNT I request permission to leave the net.
QNU The net has traffic for you.
QNX You are excused from the net
QNY Shift to another frequency.
QNZ Zero beat your signal with mine.
QRG Will you tell me my exact frequency?
QRH Does my frequency vary?
QRJ Are you receiving me badly?
QRK What is the intelligibility of my signals?
QRL Are you busy?
QRM Is my transmission being interfered with?
QRN Are you troubled by static?
QRO Shall I increase power?
QRP Shall I decrease power?
QRQ Shall I send faster?
QRS Shall I send more slowly?
QRT Shall I stop sending?
QRU Have you anything for me?
QRV Are you ready?
QRX When will you call me again?
QRY What is my turn?
QRZ Who is calling me?
QSA What is the strength of my signals?
QSB Are my signals fading?
QSD Is my keying defective?
QSG Shall I send messages?
QSK Can you hear between your signals?
QSL Can you acknowledge receipt?
QSM Shall I repeat the last message?
QSN Did you hear me?
QSO Can you communicate with me?
QSP Will you relay?
QST General call preceding a message.
QSU Shall I send or reply on this frequency?
QSW Will you send on this frequency?
QSX Will you listen?
QSY Shall I change frequency?
QSZ Shall I send each word more than once?
QTA Shall I cancel message?
QTB Do you agree with my counting of words?
QTC How many messages have you to send?
QTH What is your location?
QTR What is the correct time?

Other common shorthand CW phrases are mainly for amateur radio operators, but can still be found on the SW bands. These aren't in order, they're just as I think of them.

73 Goodbye, cheers, etc.
DX Distance. Used mostly for "DX contests" to see how far one can transmit/receive.
YL Young lady. Used with the numbers stations as a way to report who was heard.
WX Weather
SKED Schedule. Used for regularly programmed stations/nets.
DE From. As in 'W1AW SKED DE W4WIS' if I was going to send you the Morse code schedule that is broadcast on W1AW. Basically, "here is the W1AW schedule from W4WIS"
CQ Hello, _{hello, _hello,} is there anybody out there?
UR I hate the fact that this made it to the internet, but it's the obvious.

Anyone want to fill in what I'm missing?

Halah fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Jun 23, 2007

# ? Jun 23, 2007 07:51

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

Halah posted:

Anyone want to fill in what I'm missing?

You could add the standard responses for QSL responses/cards, as in, what the standard scale is, whether 1 is good or bad on which scale, etc. Also, what exactly radio folk think of in terms of what 'moderate' interference is. People who are used to listening to local FM stations may well classify mild fuzziness as "extreme".

# ? Jun 23, 2007 09:40

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

SoundMonkey posted:

You could add the standard responses for QSL responses/cards, as in, what the standard scale is, whether 1 is good or bad on which scale, etc. Also, what exactly radio folk think of in terms of what 'moderate' interference is. People who are used to listening to local FM stations may well classify mild fuzziness as "extreme".

If you mean the "SINPO" code, here you go;

code:

S-Signal        I-Interference  N- Natural      P-Propagation   Overall merit   
                                Noise           Conditions                      
5-Excellent     5-None          5-None          5-Excellent     5-Excellent     
4-Good          4-Slight        4-Slight        4-Slight        4-Good          
                                                disturbance                     
3-Fair          3-Moderate      3-Moderate      3-Moderately    3-Fair          
                                                disturbed                       
2-Poor          2-Severe        2-Severe        2-Severe        2-Poor          
                                                disturbance                     
1-Barely        1-Extremely     1-Extremely     1-Very poor     1-Useless       
Audible         strong          strong          propagation

As for what all that means? Since I'm on the East coast, and for ease of offering examples, I can only offer AM(MW) examples right now. I'm in Anderson, SC. I'm listening to 700 WLW in Cincinnati.

Signal is 5 - The signal is as strong as can be. No changes needed to be made for me to hear it.
Interference is 5 - There are no stations I can hear interfering with WLW.
Natural Noise is 4 - There is a hiss that is natural but annoying for this time of night.
Propagation is 5 - There is no fade in the signal, I can hear everything that is said clearly.
Overall is a 5 - I can listen to this station without a problem, have no issue understanding anything that is said, and basically it sounds like I'm listening to a local station.

That report would be 55455.

Now let's go to 1200 and listen to WOAI in San Antonio.

Signal is 3 - I can hear it, but it's fading in and out
Interference is 2 - Heavy interference from a Spanish station, it fades in and out.
Natural Noise is 3 - Lots of pops and hisses. Sounds like a thunderstorm out there somewhere between me and them.
Propagation is 2 - There are several seconds between the signal fading to a Spanish signal and back again. When it's strong, it's good, but it's hard to copy/
Overall is a 3 - I can gain enough from this broadcast to ID the station and glean the content of the program, but it can be difficult to listen to for up to 30 seconds at a time.

That report would be 32323.

Halah fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Jun 23, 2007

# ? Jun 23, 2007 10:30

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

Thanks for the protips on that, I've been mistakenly calling natural noise 'interference' for a while now I guess. Y'know, the kind of natural noise that sounds like satan violating a screech owl. Also, I thought the fading in/out was passing trucks or something. Now I know.

A question... if I'm looking to pick up some USB/LSB stuff, would it be a good strategy to switch to SSB on the receiver, dial the fine tune all the way up to USB, and hit scan? Or is this just likely to make the preachers I find sound really hosed up?

# ? Jun 23, 2007 10:44

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

SoundMonkey posted:

Thanks for the protips on that, I've been mistakenly calling natural noise 'interference' for a while now I guess. Y'know, the kind of natural noise that sounds like satan violating a screech owl. Also, I thought the fading in/out was passing trucks or something. Now I know.

If you're hanging out on the sidebands and picking up an AM transmission, it most certainly will sound like a banshee from some circle of hell. Otherwise, it's normal to hear a loud hiss.

SoundMonkey posted:

A question... if I'm looking to pick up some USB/LSB stuff, would it be a good strategy to switch to SSB on the receiver, dial the fine tune all the way up to USB, and hit scan? Or is this just likely to make the preachers I find sound really hosed up?

In my opinion, it would be best to figure out what stations you want to hear. Why are you concentrating on the sidebands? At any rate, if the signal is strong enough, you can probably scan without SSB. The radio will catch the signal, and it will sound like crap. Switch to SSB and fine tune up or down until you catch it.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 11:34

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

Halah posted:

In my opinion, it would be best to figure out what stations you want to hear. Why are you concentrating on the sidebands? At any rate, if the signal is strong enough, you can probably scan without SSB. The radio will catch the signal, and it will sound like crap. Switch to SSB and fine tune up or down until you catch it.

No real reason, I've just never found anything SSB yet, so I wanted to give it a go and see what it sounded like both with and without SSB turned on, so I could better identify them in the future.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 20:35

Canuck-Errant: Oct 28, 2003; MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS; Grimey Drawer

Well, it looks like I got the only E5 left in Saskatchewan as a (5-days-early) birthday present. And it was on clearance, too.

All I have to do now is set the wire antenna up for best reception. Around the window, you say?

# ? Jun 23, 2007 23:17

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

Canuck-Errant posted:

Well, it looks like I got the only E5 left in Saskatchewan as a (5-days-early) birthday present. And it was on clearance, too.

All I have to do now is set the wire antenna up for best reception. Around the window, you say?

I put mine outside on my balcony, and it seemed to work pretty well. I did, however, get only slightly worse results using the internal telescopic antenna. I guess which you use depends on where you want to listen - if I had a nice chair on the balcony, I'd probably just take the radio out there and use the antenna on it.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 23:23

Pixelboy: Sep 13, 2005; Now, I know what you're thinking...

You guys have claimed another victim.

I picked up an Eton E5 from Radio Shack here in Canada (now called The Source) for $95 or so. They're on clearence... you can probably snag one as there appear to be a few left here and there according to their web inventory.

Looking forward to tonight... I live in a ground floor apartment. We'll see what I can detect. I'm so excited.

# ? Jun 23, 2007 23:34

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

If this has been mentioned already, my apologies...

Something to keep in mind, if you're using a portable w/ a wire antenna, is to clip the wire to the antenna itself as opposed to using the antenna jack. Many portables have an attenuator built into the jack to help with static or lightning discharges; if you're just running your wire in your room or on a balcony or something, you don't need to worry about those.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 03:37

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

nmfree posted:

If this has been mentioned already, my apologies...

Something to keep in mind, if you're using a portable w/ a wire antenna, is to clip the wire to the antenna itself as opposed to using the antenna jack. Many portables have an attenuator built into the jack to help with static or lightning discharges; if you're just running your wire in your room or on a balcony or something, you don't need to worry about those.

That hasn't been mentioned, thanks for the tip. So, for the Eton, would I just touch the tip of the 1/8" connector to the telescopic antenna? I'm assuming only the tip is used, or that both sleeve and tip are tied together or something, since there's only one wire. Is this correct?

Also, will I get decent results just attaching the antenna to something big and metal? I ask because the person in the apartment next to me has their entire balcony enclosed in chicken wire to keep squirrels out, and it seems like it could be a great antenna.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 03:53

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

SoundMonkey posted:

No real reason, I've just never found anything SSB yet, so I wanted to give it a go and see what it sounded like both with and without SSB turned on, so I could better identify them in the future.

Your best bet is to hit the ham bands (40, 80 & 160m are LSB, pretty much everything else - with a couple exceptions - is USB.)

It sounds like this.

Edit:

SoundMonkey posted:

Also, will I get decent results just attaching the antenna to something big and metal? I ask because the person in the apartment next to me has their entire balcony enclosed in chicken wire to keep squirrels out, and it seems like it could be a great antenna.

Hahaha, hell yeah! An antenna wall! You'd probably want to ground that, though.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 04:08

Pixelboy: Sep 13, 2005; Now, I know what you're thinking...

Well, I just had my first signal!

I'm in a ground apartment in a built up area, and was quickly losing hope of finding a signal without walking to the beach to run a wire...

But I just picked up a crazy preacher guy on 6090 KHz - weak, weak signal, fading in and out. Depending on how I held my body or even the built in antenna, he would fade away.

This might be cool.

Edit: According to http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/freql.txt, was I really listening to someone from Anguilla?!

Pixelboy fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Jun 24, 2007

# ? Jun 24, 2007 04:31

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

I'll add the callsigns 'n stuff, and a full breakdown of USB/LSB/SSB and CW to the OP when I get a chance tomorrow. Things have been INSANE the last couple days. Lets just say the prehistoric elephant fossils I've been working on at the museum lab have turned out to be WAY more important than previously thought.

And to the new owners of E5s, can I find out how much you paid for them to add to the financial drain in the OP? Thanks!

# ? Jun 24, 2007 04:33

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

SoundMonkey posted:

That hasn't been mentioned, thanks for the tip. So, for the Eton, would I just touch the tip of the 1/8" connector to the telescopic antenna? I'm assuming only the tip is used, or that both sleeve and tip are tied together or something, since there's only one wire. Is this correct?

Just the tip, yes; the sleeve is supposed to be connected to ground.

SoundMonkey posted:

Also, will I get decent results just attaching the antenna to something big and metal? I ask because the person in the apartment next to me has their entire balcony enclosed in chicken wire to keep squirrels out, and it seems like it could be a great antenna.

You may, it's worth experimenting with.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 05:06

SoundMonkey: Apr 22, 2006; I just push buttons.

AstroZamboni posted:

And to the new owners of E5s, can I find out how much you paid for them to add to the financial drain in the OP? Thanks!

I paid $99 CAD for mine, not including taxes. I paid an additional $22 for hot-poo poo 2500 mAh NiMH batteries, if that counts.

Oddly enough, the Eton E5 was going for $20 less than the Grundig G4000A, when it appears to be an equal or superior radio.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 05:15

IonClash: Feb 27, 2007

Heads up gang-

Numbers station running on 6740 kHz, 10:40 MST.
Female voice, damned freaky too.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 05:40

AstroZamboni: Mar 8, 2007; Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

IonClash posted:

Heads up gang-

Numbers station running on 6740 kHz, 10:40 MST.
Female voice, damned freaky too.

Was this numbers or Phonetic alphabet letters? What language?

AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Jun 24, 2007

# ? Jun 24, 2007 06:53

Halah: Sep 1, 2003; Maybe just another light that shines

I couldn't pick it up. In fact I'm not having much luck at all tonight. I've settled in to listening to a couple hams talk about antennas. SoundMonkey, if you're around they're on 3988 USB.

E: Hey Astro, did you ever think you'd have a 10 page thread about SW?

# ? Jun 24, 2007 06:56

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 10, 2024 00:51

Curly Shuffle: May 31, 2001; Toilet Rascal

Halah posted:

I've settled in to listening to a couple hams talk about antennas. SoundMonkey, if you're around they're on 3988 USB.

Thanks for this. I'm listening in now, trying to get the hang of the SSB fine tuning on my E5.

# ? Jun 24, 2007 07:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

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